Match Quality, Search, and the Internet Market for Used Books

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ellison, Glenn; Ellison, Sara Fisher
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Paris School of Economics
• 刊物名称: RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0741-6261
• DOI: 10.1111/1756-2171.70032
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: PRICE DISPERSION EVIDENCE; product variety; MODEL; equilibrium; COMPETITION; distributions; INFORMATION; obfuscation; shopbot; demand

摘要

This article examines effects of internet search technologies on match-quality markets. A model in which sellers of unusual objects wait for high-value buyers illustrates how more efficient search may simultaneously increase price levels, price dispersion, and social welfare. A reduced-form analysis of the used-book market finds support for several nuanced model predictions. Estimates from a novel structural framework indicate the shift to online sales more than doubled social welfare, with gains roughly evenly split between booksellers and consumers. Amazon's acquisition and incorporation of a used-book marketplace spurred price competition, but appears to have had minimal welfare effects.